Code Lyoko: Apocalypse
by Noble Roar
Summary: They thought it was over. With Aelita on earth, all they needed to do was create her antivirus and shut X.A.N.A down for good. But the A.I had a plan and it simply wasn't going down without a fight. With new and unlikely allies, the Lyoko warriors are about to meet their greatest challenge yet... one that might mean the end of the real world. Eventual OddxVictor.
1. Chapter 1: Sandstorm

CODE LYOKO: APOCALYPSE

 _Disclaimer: I do not Code Lyoko or its characters. They are merely the tools that I'm borrowing to craft the products of my imagination._

Chapter One: Sandstorm

There was serenity in the desert sector of Lyoko. It was lit with a harsh orange glow, provided by an invisible source. This relative peace was shattered by loud screams of ecstasy. They belonged, of course, to Odd Della Robia.

"This is so cool," he declared, perched atop his overboard which he was riding with amazing skill. "X.A.N.A better watch now that we've got these things." He urged his overboard faster and performed an aerial somersault. Congratulating himself, he caught sight of a grinning Ulrich. Grinning wildly, he gunned his overboard and attempted to overtake the samurai. Ulrich glanced backwards and noticed the rapidly approaching Odd. "Oh no you don't," he muttered and instantly burned rubber. Odd gave chase and so the race began. The two sped into a small canyon, dodging boulders and jumping over small gaps in their mad bid to overtake each other.

Jeremie watched them on the supercomputer interface, his face distorted in disbelief. "This is ridiculous. Odd, could you take it easy? I didn't have time to build the program that controls your overboard's trajectory. The physics aren't right yet."

'Relax Einstein," Odd drawled with a lazy flick of his hand. "I don't need a program to beat Ulrich. He drives so slow my grandma could outwalk him." He laughed heartily at his own joke and promptly crashed into a wall. A few moments later, Ulrich came to a stop beside him, a smirk on his face. "You were saying."

Odd ignored him and focused on dusting himself. Then, coming in with a graceful landing, Yumi and Aelita arrived on the overwing. "Boys," said the two girls in unison, shaking their heads. "What did I do," Ulrich asked with a gesture of innocence. "It was Odd's fault."

"Hey," Odd protested and the two began to bicker.

"Uh guys," Jeremie interrupted, "As much as I would love to see you two beat each other up; it looks like X.A.N.A has spotted you. A monster is headed your way." The gang went into defensive positions.

"Well, what is it," Yumi asked after a pause. Jeremie frowned at the screen, taped at some keys and frowned again. "Um guys, we have a problem. I have no idea which monster it is. It must be a new one."

'Hey, what's that?" Aelita asked, pointing at a shape that was bearing down on them all. "I've never seen that one before."

As the monster got closer, the gang was able to get a closer look at it. It vaguely resembled giant grasshopper with four legs and no antennae. The X.A.N.A symbol took up a place of honor on its head.

"I don't like the looks of this, Aelita get to the tower so I can materialize you," Jeremie ordered. Aelita nodded and took off in the direction of the tower. "The rest of you, get on your vehicles and get rid of that monster." The trio jumped on their vehicles and charged the monster. It screamed its battle cry and began to fire at them. One of its lasers hit Yumi's overwing and devirtualized it. Yumi landed on her feet and dodged the flurry of lasers that was aimed at her.

Ulrich drove his overbike towards the monster and jumped off, hoping to smash it. The monster simply shot the vehicle and devirtualized it before the bike could reach it. "Is it just me," Ulrich said, unsheathing his katana, "Or is it that thing a lot smarter than X.A.N.A's other monsters."

'My turn," Odd said and flew at the monster, firing wildly. None of his shots connected and the monster turned his lasers on the athlete. He tried to dodge, but one of the lasers hit him on the chest. "Odd, be careful. You just lost 20 lifepoints," Jeremie exclaimed. "That thing has a powerful laser."

Odd hovered and scowled at the screaming beast. "So the tarantula packs a punch." "The what?" Yumi asked, whipping out her fan and sending it flying at the monster, but it shot it away. "A Tarantula," Odd repeated. "It's annoying. Like a spider. So I'm calling it that." Capitalizing on the distraction, the tarantula trained its shooters on Yumi. She tried to dodge, but the hail of lasers were too much and too fast and she was devirtualized. Ulrich roared in anger and charged the monster in blind rage. He was quickly taken out.

Jeremie was on comms. "Odd hang in there, Aelita is almost at the tower." "Laser Arrow," Odd yelled, firing at the monster, while swerving and spinning chaotically in an attempt to dodge the never ending hail of lasers. But it was useless, none of his shots were connecting.

Jeremie heaved an audible sigh of relief. "Odd, Aelita is in the tower, I'm materializing her now. Get out of there and I'll soon devirtualize you."

"No way," Odd protested. "I'm getting rid of this creep first." In a flash, the tarantula raised itself up on its hind legs. It devirtualized the overboard and as Odd plummeted screaming to the ground, devirtualized him too. Victorious, the monster screamed at the sky.

-PROFILE CARD: ODD-

Jeremie sighed and spun his chair to face the gang. "Well, it looks X.A.N.A has gotten stronger and more powerful, powerful enough to create that tarantula." Ulrich raised a finger. "You mean he's still evolving?" "It seems like that, yes," the genius replied. "Think about it, with out discovery of sector 5, materializing Aelita and now your new vehicles; X.A.N.A does have a lot to be happy with us about. I thought it was over when the scyphozoa showed up, but with this? We have to be ready." The gang nodded grimly.

Aelita sighed. She walked up to the Lyoko holomap and gazed at it for a moment. "Well, I should be getting back to Lyoko. I have to be there in case X.A.N.A attacks." The others smiled at this. "Should we tell her?" Odd asked, grinning mischievously. "Of course we should tell her, we can't keep this sort of thing a secret," Yumi replied.

Aelita stared at them. "Tell me what?" she asked in confusion.

"Its something I've been working on all summer," said Jeremie. "It's a superscanner. A program that will instantly notify us if X.A.N.A activates a tower so you don't have to stay in Lyoko all the time."

"Also, we enrolled you as a border at Kadic," Ulrich chipped in. "So, do you like it?"

"Like it?" Aelita asked in disbelief. "I love it." She smiled at all of them. "It's just wonderful.

-PROFILE CARD:AELITA-

"Okay, here's room 41. This where you will be staying miss… um… miss…" "Aelita," said the pink haired girl. "Aelita Stones from Canada." "Oh, okay," said Jim and then went on. "Classes start at 8 in the morning, breakfast and lunch, an hour before and after classes. I trust that your friends Della Robia, Belpois and Stern will fill in on the rest of the school rules." Here he turned and glared at the trio. "If they could actually remember them." The gang smirked and Jim huffed in disgust. "If you'll excuse me, I have another new student to attend to. I trust you'll settle in well." The eyeing the three sourly, he stalked off.

"So, Jeremie began, "how do you like it?" "It's just amazing," Aelita replied, gazing around the room. "Great," Ulrich said, "we'll be back to pick you up for lunch later." They waved Aelita goodbye and the trio headed down to Jeremie's room.

"I think I'll miss lunch today," the genius said thoughtfully. "I have to work on Aelita's antivirus." "Hey Einstein, you've got to take it easy," Ulrich said. "Yeah," Odd agreed. "Working yourself down to the bone isn't going to help Aelita much." Jeremie sighed. "I know, but… hey, what's Jim doing here?"

They had arrived at Jeremie's room and sure enough, Jim was backing out of it and apparently holding a conversation with the empty room. "Yes, I believe you will like it here very much. Remember, class starts at eight and if you need help getting anywhere, just ask your roommate… well here he is right now," Jim concluded, directing the last part to Jeremie who had drawn closer to him.

"Jeremie, right on cue, this is your new roommate Victor Iranlo, Victor Iranlo, Jeremie Belpois.

"Hi," the dark skinned boy waved at Jeremie. "I hope you don't mind, but Jim said I could set up my stuff."

Jeremie and his friends gazed at the room. It had gone through some drastic changes. A bed had appeared beside Jeremie's and the cupboard moved over to the opposite wall. A small wardrobe was at the end of Victor's bed and a heavily modified laptop sat on it. All of the spare bits of cardboard and magazines had been neatly stacked on one side.

"Well, I see you're settling in well. Good luck Mr. Iranlo," Jim said formally and went away. Now left alone, the boys stared at each other. Victor frowned at the horrified look on Jeremie's face. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked. He had a vaguely eastern accent.

"No, no," Odd answered, breaking the ice. "It's just; Jeremie doesn't like people touching his staff. He's OCD that way. Anyway I'm Odd and this is Ulrich."

"Okay," said Victor. "I didn't mean any harm." Then a thought seemed to occur to him. He raised an eyebrow. "Did you just say you were odd?"

Ulrich began to giggle. "No," he said. "His real name is Odd. But no worries, everyone makes that mistake the first time." "Oh," Victor grinned. "Cool name though."

"I know right," Odd agreed. He already liked this kid. "Anyway, you've probably got the same classes at us, but since new students don't have classes during their first day, I guess we'll be seeing you at lunch. You'll meet the rest of the gang there and it'll give Einstein here a chance to thaw out."

"Sure, that'll be great," Victor answered. He frowned at Jeremie a bit, before turning on his laptop and working on it. Ulrich and Odd dragged Jeremie out of the room and began to interrogate him.

"What's the deal Einstein?" Odd asked. "Victor seems like a nice guy. What's more he's a computer geek like you, which is a huge plus by the way. So why don't you like him?"

"Can't you see, this is a disaster," Jeremie exclaimed, his tongue finally coming loose. "How can I sneak out to the factory at night, run the superscan and most importantly work on Aelita's antivirus with Victor there. He'll find out about Lyoko!"

"Jeremie I think overreacting a little bit," Ulrich said, and then raised his hand to stop the torrent of arguments he was sure the genius was about to disgorge. "If he finds out about Lyoko it's a good thing. You've got to admit we could use the extra hand, what whit X.A.N.A ramping up his A-game." Jeremie thought it over.

"Fine," he said surrending. "But we barely know him. How can we be sure that he can be trusted?"

"We don't," Odd replied matter-of-factly. "So we remedy that and get to know him."

"And hope X.A.N.A doesn't launch an attack before that," Jeremie added.

-PROFILE CARD: JEREMIE-

Two men stood in front of the warehouse beside Kadic Academy. They were counting the bags of sand inside it. The bags were huge, and in total took up over three quarters of the warehouse's capacity. One of men was bent over his notepad, writing on it.

"Okay," said the man. "They are all here." "Good," the other man replied. "Lets go get lunch, I'm starving." The first man looked up from his notepad. "You're always starving," he said, laughing. The two men locked the warehouse and walked away.

The instant they were gone, a black slimy mass slithered out from the electrical sockets. It rose up and considered the sandbags for the moment, before entering some of them. The bags ripped open and sand gushed out from them, pooling and then forming a massive shape.

xXoXx

"Hey Victor, over here," Odd yelled, waving his hands maniacally. Victor caught sight of them, smiled and walked over with his food tray. "So, how was your first day," Ulrich asked. Victor shrugged as he sat down. "It was okay, I guess. I worked on my program a bit and then toured the school with a weird girl."

"You can make programs?" Jeremie asked, showing signs of interest. "Yes," Victor answered. "But I can only work with Java Scripts for now." The others had no idea what Victor was talking about, but Jeremie nodded and the two began an earnest conversation on computers.

"I hate to interrupt this love fest," said Odd drily. "But at this rate we wont get to introduce Yumi and Aelita until next Tuesday." Right on cue, the two girls walked in. Aelita smiled at Victor but Yumi frowned.

"Speak of the devils, well Victor; this is the awesome Yumi Ishiyama and the lovely Aelita Stones. Yumi and Aelita, Victor Iranlo," Odd announced making the introductions. "Pleased to meet you," said the dark skinned boy. "And its pronounced EYE-ran-low, not E-RAN-low," he corrected. "It's not my fault you have a weird sounding name," Odd said.

"I have a weird sounding name," Victor asked in disbelief. "Have you met you?" The gang chuckled.

"So, where are from?" Yumi asked, eyeing Victor suspiciously like she was convinced he was a spy or something. "Oh," said Victor, like he wasn't expecting the question. "I'm from Ni…" He was cut off by the arrival of Sissi and friends. Nicholas was carrying her food tray and Herve was shoving people out of the way. In a few moments, they descended on the gang.

"Ulrich darling," Sissi crooned. "It's so good to see you again." She then noticed Victor's presence. "What's this," she sneered, "a new recruit?"

"I know you," Victor replied, staring at Sissi intently. "You're the girl that took me on tour. The principal's daughter… what's her name… Skippy?"

"It's Sissi, you big dope," she snapped. "And you could do much, much better about your choice of friends. I mean look at them. Aside from Ulrich; they're all a bunch of losers. But no worries. There's still an open spot in my group."

Strangely, Victor did not seem thrilled by this offer. "Thanks," he said. "But I've already got friends. Besides, the thirty minutes I spent on tour with you were complete agony. Only a raving lunatic would want that, and sadly for you, I'm not crazy."

The gang burst into derisive laughter and high fived Victor. Sissi was livid. "You'll pay," she snarled and marched off to the table, Herve and Nicholas in tow. "Nice one," Ulrich said, smiling. "You're okay," said Yumi, seeming to come to a sudden decision. "You're okay."

The relaxed atmosphere was shattered by Jeremie's laptop. It was emitting strong, impulsive beeps. "What's that sound," Victor asked, staring curiously at the computer. The gang exchanged meaningful looks. "Uh Victor, there's something I have to tell you." Jeremie was interrupted by a loud scream from outside. Instantly, everyone was out of their seats and rushing towards the windows to find out what it was. When the gang managed to fight their way outside, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. A huge sandstorm had taken over half of the school. Right in the middle, formed by lighter colored sand was the X.A.N.A symbol.

The scream had come from Tamiya. "Help," she wailed. "Milly's inside the storm." The students began to whisper and the gang surrounded Tamiya. "What happened?" Aelita asked gently. "Milly's inside there," she sobbed. "The sandstorm just grabbed her, and when Jim tried to help, the storm ate him too." Victor stared at the growing mass. "Does this sort of thing happen regularly?" he asked. The gang thought it over. "Yeah, pretty much," they agreed. Victor glanced at the weeping Tamiya and sighed deeply. "I'm going in there," he declared suddenly. The others made signs of shock.

"What are you crazy?" Ulrich asked.

"You don't understand," Victor said calmly. "If they stay in there too long, they'll choke to death." He clenched his fists and ran into the storm. The students gasped in horror.

"Moron," Jeremie said half annoyed, half impressed. "Odd, get the students out of here and then help Victor and make sure he doesn't kill himself. The rest of us will go to the factory and deactivate the tower. Let's go." Odd turned and began corralling the students like they were a mass of ambling sheep. Jeremie and the others slipped off to the park. They went through the sewers and soon were at the factory. "Okay guys, head to the scanner room, I'll start up the virtualization process." Jeremie jumped onto the seat, traced out the holomap and booted up the supercomputer. He surveyed the interface for a moment.

"Alright, the activated tower is in the ice sector. I'm starting up the procedure." Jeremie punched some keys and said.

"Transfer Aelita,"

"Transfer Ulrich,"

"Transfer Yumi,"

Their cards appeared on the screen, went transparent and began to fill up.

"Scanner Aelita,"

"Scanner Ulrich,"

"Scanner Yumi,"

The cards filled up completely and flipped to their Lyoko forms. Jeremie entered the last code and hit the enter key.

"Virtualization."

Over the skies of the ice sector, three humanoid wireframes appeared. Texture and color quickly filled it up and the three dropped to the ground gracefully. "Okay, Jeremie were here," Ulrich said.

"The tower is 15 degrees due North. I'm sending in your vehicles. Try to deactivate the tower as soon as possible, I don't know how long Milly and Jim have left, but I'm guessing it's not long." Ulrich got onto his overbike, Yumi and Aelita went into the overwing. "Got it," Yumi said and they sped off.

-PROFILE CARD: ODD-

It wasn't all that hard to clear the students. Most people tended to run away from giant, man eating sand storms. Odd, however, wasn't one of those people. Once the cafeteria had been cleared, Odd charged heroically into the storm in search of Victor and the others. So far, he had come up empty.

Odd put his arm over his face, breathing through his sleeve while staring blearily around. How was he supposed to find three people when he couldn't see a thing? Suddenly, he spotted a flash of red and a muffled grunt. Odd headed towards it. It was Jim. He was passed out cold on the ground. Victor was trying unsuccessfully to move Jim's massive body. Odd hurried forward, and between the two of them managed to drag Jim into a building. It was thankfully clear of murderous sandstorms. Milly was lying in a corner nearby. They dragged Jim to the corner and dumped him beside Milly. Victor wiped the sweat from his face. "How'd you find me?" He asked. Odd shrugged, looking around. "Just got lucky." They were on the ground floor of the science building. Sand leaked profusely from the windows and door. "We can't stay here. We need to get higher," said Odd. Victor noticed the sand and nodded. "Where are Jeremie and the others?" He grunted, dragging Milly up the flight of stairs. "They went for help," Odd answered, which was partly true. "I hope it gets here soon," Victor frowned at the glass windows and doors. "Those won't hold back the storm for long."

They draped Milly over a table and went back for Jim. It was hardwork, lugging the gym teacher up the staircase, and the two were wheezing and gasping when they were done. "Jeez, what does Jim eat?" Odd gasped. Victor giggled and the two sat against a column to rest a bit. Odd wondered idly what the others were up to in Lyoko. He was about to doze off, when the sandstorm suddenly intensified and the ground doors and windows shattered. Through the chaos of the swirling sand, Odd heard something huge enter the building.

xXoXx

"Guys, what's the hold up," Jeremie asked, gazing at the stationary icons that represented his Lyoko team. "Uh Jeremie," Aelita began slowly. "We have a problem."

They were crouched behind a glacier, gazing at the tower. The tower rested on a small island, surrounded by a small patch of digital sea. And to make matters worse, two tarantulas blocked access to the island. "Oh," Jeremie groaned, noticing the problem. "I hate to be a whiner, but you guys need to figure out a way around that. Need I remind you that Odd, Victor and the others don't have much time."

"Keep your pants on," Ulrich said. "We'll think of something." The three Lyoko warriors looked down at the tower, its red aura gleaming tauntingly at them. It look like there was a way for them to get to the tower that didn't involve instant devirtualization. Yumi narrowed her eyes and bit her lip. She turned to Aelita. "Do you think you can create a bridge between the tower and the sea from over here?"

Aelita considered this. "Maybe, I think so."

"Good. Do it now. It will distract the tarantulas (I can't believe I'm using Odd's ridiculous nickname). Ulrich will rush in. It'll be hard for them to get a hit in with his speed. I'll provide backup and close up any gaps in our guard."

"Okay. Its crazy, but it might work," Ulrich said.

Aelita closed her eyes and concentrated. At once, angelic singing filled the air. A huge wireframe appeared, connecting the mainland with the towers island.

"Go," Yumi yelled.

Ulrich took off in a blur of yellow light towards the tarantulas, which had turned to observe the bridge that had miraculously appeared. He reached the closest tarantula and sliced off one of its legs. It screamed in outrage and toppled over, giving Ulrich clear access to the X.A.N.A symbol on it's head. A few moments later, it exploded into microns and pixels. Ulrich grinned and charged the second one which had taken notice of him. He dodged the hail of shots aimed his way and leaped at the tarantula. It took a swipe at him and knocked him away.

"Careful Ulrich," Jeremie said, alarmed. "You just lost forty life points."

Ulrich groaned and looked up to see the tarantula looming over him, ready to take him out. There was a sharp screech and one of Yumi's fans came hurtling towards the monster. It jumped back quickly and the fan narrowly missed its head, taking out a leg instead. Yumi leaped up and caught the fan on its return arc. She glared at the monster, which screamed and glared right back. Ulrich took up position beside her. "Nice save, but where's Aelita?" Yumi inclined her head and Ulrich looked behind the monster to see Aelita running towards the bridge and tower.

"Okay guys, you know what you have to do," Jeremie said calmly. "Keep the monster focused on you to give Aelita time to deactivate the tower."

Ulric huffed. "This isn't going to be easy."

Yumi shrugged. "Since when was it ever easy?" And they charged the tarantula together.

xXoXx

"What the hell is that?" Victor whispered. When they'd heard the sound of breaking glass, Victor and Odd immediately dragged Milly and Jim into a cupboard, which proved to be a smart decision. Now they were staring in horror at the nightmarish beast that was moving around downstairs.

The said beast looked vaguely human, except for the tiny facts that its arms were too long, it was roughly the size of a baby whale and it was entirely made up of loosely shifting sand. It stared blearily around and began to make slowly for the stairs.

"Come," Odd whispered harshly and seized the gaping Victor by the arm. They raced a bit deeper into the building, up several staircases before bursting out onto the last floor of the science building.

"Do you think we're safe here?" Victor asked.

As if in answer, there was a mighty roar and the sand beast exploded from the ground. It stared at Odd, X.A.N.A's symbol flickering on its head.

"I'm guessing that's a no," Odd commented. The two dove sideways, narrowly avoiding being crushed by the monster's arm. Its attention shifted to Odd, who began to scramble backwards, trying to stay out of its way. The sand monster swiped at Odd, who barely managed to dodge it again. He rolled upright and charged the monster, screaming his battle cry.

Odd leaped up at the last moment and successfully performed a flying kick, right into the monster's chest. This barely fazed it and only managed to trap Odd. The monster trained its symbol on Odd, drew him gingerly out from its chest and began to absorb him. He was almost completely engulfed in the monster's arm when, with a sharp twang, a cupboard dropped out of nowhere and smashed it flat.

Odd freed himself and looked up at Victor's grinning, sweaty face. "Thanks," he croaked as he raced up the stairs. The duo moved deeper into the building and proceeded to the roof. Unnoticed by either, the X.A.N.A symbol blinked to life on the sand beneath the cupboard. The sand beast rose up, shoved it aside violently and looked up at the stairs with a posture that looked very, very angry.

-PROFILE CARD: YUMI-

The tarantula was ready for them. As Ulrich supersprinted away, it let loose a flurry of shots at Yumi. She let her fans fly and dived out of the way at the last second. The monster barely avoided getting devirtualized by the fans, instead it lost another leg and flopped helplessly on the ground. It screamed in outrage and suddenly aimed its cannons behind it.

The lasers connected with a surprised Ulrich who had been trying a sneak attack and devirtualized him. Yumi didn't waste the opportunity. With the monster distracted, she let loose a fan. There was no dodging this time. Half it's head got sliced off and it exploded. Yumi leaped up and caught her fan; looking back to see Aelita calmly enter the tower.

xXoXx

They never saw it coming. One moment Odd and Victor were walking across the science building's roof, the next, the sand monster exploded out of the ground and tackled Victor. Their momentum carried them out to the edge where the sandstorm swirled hungrily beneath them. Odd dived forward and managed to snag Victor's hand, leaving him hanging precariously from the edge. The sand beast on the other hand, tumbled past and plummeted down to the sinister looking sandstorm.

Odd grunted and tried to readjust his balance. The railing that he had managed to grab onto, and that was keeping them from plummeting to their deaths creaked loudly in protest. The two of them were too heavy by far. The tall boy himself seemed to realize this and looked up at Odd calmly. His voice shook a little.

"Odd.…"

"No," said Odd stubbornly, tightening his grip. The sandstorm suddenly picked up and he lurched sickeningly forward.

xXoXx

The rings of the lower level of the tower lit up at Aelita's presence. She calmly walked up to the middle one and allowed herself to be carried up.

XoX

Sand swirled furiously around the two boys, battering them mercilessly. Odd's grip began to slacken and he roared in frustration, eyes wide in horror. _Return to_ _the past_ , he thought sluggishly, _it can't bring back the dead._

XoX

Aelita floated to the top and the interface sprang to life. She placed her palm on it.

AELITA.

Victor smiled up at Odd. "Goodbye." "No," Odd screamed, but it was already too late. Even as the railing that Odd held creaked loudly, Victor gave a twist and slipped free…

CODE...

Odd and Victor locked eyes as he fell, the sandstorm reaching up hungrily to claim him...

LYOKO

"Return to the past now," said Jeremie and tapped a key. A beam of light rose up from the factory and began to rapidly expand. A moment before Victor hit the sandstorm, the white light reached him and swallowed him up gently.

-PROFILE CARD: ODD-

Ulrich and Jeremie stared at Odd, open mouthed. "Victor really did all that?" Jeremie asked. Odd nodded grimly. "Wow," Ulrich breathed. "Either that kid has a death wish, or he's really, _really_ brave."

Odd frowned at Victor who was filling up his food tray. He wasn't sure how he felt about Victor's large capacity for sacrifice, and he wasn't sure why he wasn't sure. He sighed. 24 hours, and the boy already had the gang confused. Odd scratched his head and groaned internally. He hated being confused. And so in order to stave of madness, he did what he always did when he didn't want to think about stuff.

" Hey Victor," Odd yelled, waving his hands maniacally. "Over here."

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	2. Chapter 2: Breaking Boundaries

_Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or its characters. They are merely the tools that I'm borrowing to craft the products of my imagination._

Chapter Two: Breaking Boundaries

 _Aelita fled from the men in black, grabbing Mr. Puck and following the old man that called for her. As always, she couldn't see his face clearly, but something told her that she could trust this man. He opened up the secret passage and urged Aelita onwards. Soon, they left the Hermitage behind._

 _As they got to the factory, the old man, who was still cloaked in shadows, started up the process and led them to the virtualization chamber. Aelita entered the tube, grasping Mr. Puck tightly and looking up to the see the old man gazing at her. "Don't worry my dear," said the old man in a distorted voice. "Soon, very soon, we'll be together. Free from the scary men." And then, for just a moment, right before the tube shut tight, Aelita saw a flash of grey beard and tinted glasses…_

Aelita woke up with a start and rose up wearily. She glanced at the digital clock beside her bed and sighed. 3.15am, said the clock in neon green letters. She ought to get back to sleep. Sighing again, the pink haired girl groped around her bed and clasped her hand around the doll. Mr. Puck stared back at her, unmindful of the dreams that his discovery had unleashed. She shook her head and thought over this latest dream and how it had ended. She had never seen who the mysterious old man was before, not even for a brief flash.

Aelita thought of telling Jeremy about the dream, and then decided it wasn't worth the trouble. "I'll tell him tomorrow," She said to herself and went back to sleep, unaware of the malevolent black goo that was watching her.

-PROFILE CARD: AELITA-

Victor yawned and rolled over, accidently falling off his bed. He rubbed his crusty eyes and blinked at his roommate's empty bed. _Typical,_ he thought. The genius had woken up and left him asleep. Victor had been pleased when he discovered who his roommate-to-be was. Even though they had gotten off to a rough start, Victor was determined to make things work out. He had never had a friend who shared the same interests as him, and he wasn't going to blow it. Victor sighed. If only things were that easy. He was 98.5% sure that Jeremy was hiding something. Now Victor wasn't one to pry into other people's secrets; after all, he had a few secrets of his own. But it hurt that someone whom he was rapidly coming to like didn't trust him enough to tell whatever it was. The African frowned and shook his head.

It wasn't much of a surprise that Jeremy hadn't told him his secret. You didn't exactly go around telling mere acquaintances your deepest, darkest secrets. And - Victor thought relucantly - two weeks wasn't exactly time enough to trust someone. His face screwed up in determination. Jeremy's business was his business, and if he wanted to be a part of it, he was going to have to work for it.

Pleased with this decision, Victor glanced at his clock and leapt from his bed in sudden hurry.

xXoXx

Jeremy sniffed a little after Aelita finished telling them about her dream. "That's new," Ulrich commented with a slight frown. "The last part I mean. You've never seen the old man's face before have you." Jeremy frowned along with Ulrich when Aelita nodded. He didn't know why Aelita kept having dreams about the house they'd found and he hated not knowing things. "Well, we don't know enough about these dreams of yours, Aelita, or that house. I think you shouldn't allow yourself to be bothered by it."

"Yeah," Odd agreed, popping out from nowhere. "What he said."

"Odd!" Ulrich complained, clutching at his heart. "Stop doing that."

"It's not my fault you scare so easily," Odd replied unconcernedly, masking a fake yawn. Ulrich growled and the two looked on the verge of an epic smackdown.

"Hi guys, what's going on here?" asked Yumi Ishiyama as she walked up to them, unknowingly diffusing the tension.

"Hey Yumi," Odd answered cheerfully. "Nothing much, Ulrich and I were just giving our strongly worded opinions on Aelita's latest dream."

"You're still having them?" Yumi asked, throwing an arm around the girl. "Yes," Aelita replied. "But it no longer bothers me much. I prefer to think of them as a nuisance at best."

"That's the spirit," Odd cheered, pumping a fist in the air. Then he seemed to realize something as he glanced round the group. "Where's Victor?"

Jeremy's face instantly contorted to one of horror. "Oh no," he said and smacked his head. "I went the factory early this morning so I forgot to wake him up." The others groaned. It was a well known fact that Victor could sleep like the dead. As if to compound their problems, the school bell rang. "I'll go get him," Ulrich offered.

Just then Victor ran to them, arms flailing like windmills beside him. "I made it," Victor said in between great gulps of air. The gang chuckled a bit. "Victor, I'm so sorry," Jeremy apologized, wearing a contrite expression. "I should have been there to…"

"Woah there cowboy," Victor said firmly. "You have nothing to be sorry for. It's me that's going to have to wake up early from now on. Or you know, get an alarm clock. Not everything is your fault you know"

Yumi punched Jeremy playfully. "Listen to the boy, Einstein. He speaks words of wisdom."

"Yes well," Jeremy began, trying not to smile. "I'm buying the alarm clock."

"BELPOIS!" screamed Mrs. Hertz, startling everyone. "You should know better. Ditching class with your friends. Inside! All of you!"

The gang ran past the quivering science teacher into the classrooms. Jeremy vaguely heard her muttering something about kids these days. As the Mrs. Hertz shut the door behind her, something caught her eye and she turned to look at it. But it was gone. She shook her head, sure for a moment that she had seen something black. Muttering something about a nervous breakdown, she headed off to class.

-PROFILE CARD: JEREMY-

"Infrasound can loosely said to be sound below 20 decibels. At this range only dogs and other lower animals can hear it," droned Mr. Arul, the physics teacher. Jeremy, Aelita and Victor at the front seats were some of the few people that were making strenuous efforts to listen to the lecture. Odd and Ulrich were at the back and were part of the many making strenuous efforts not to fall asleep.

Odd yawned widely and caught himself. He didn't want to get a detention. Not this early into the school term. "What you must not make the mistake of doing," Mr. Arul said in answer to a question by Jeremy, "is think that because you can't _hear_ infrasound, it isn't dangerous. Just as excessively loud noises can burst the eardrums or oscillate the earth, so too can infrasound, often at greater levels. Infrasound can even confuse the brain into seeing things that aren't there," he smiled drily. "Which is the source of many a ghost sighting. Furthermore…"

Odd knew he was hearing something mildly interesting but he just couldn't make his brain focus. Beside him, Ulrich was slumped over his desk, snoring lightly. Odd blinked once, and then blinked again to see Mr. Arul standing over him, scowling. "You are quite lucky I spotted you when the bell had already rung," said the teacher. "Else you'd be in detention until the end of the school year."

His eyes travelled over the two boys' guilty faces. "Get out of here before I change my mind." At once, Odd and Ulrich stood from their seats and fled the empty class room.

-PROFILE CARD: ULRICH-

Earlier that day, Mrs. Hertz had dragged several boxes beside the cafeteria. The boxes were plain and marked with a single dot, and if anyone had bothered to check them, they would have found that they contained several strange looking machines. If either Jeremy or Victor had seen them, they would have instantly recognized them for the modified sound systems that they were. And if anyone had looked closely at Mrs. Hertz, they would have noticed that her eyes flickered to a peculiar symbol at intervals. But since everyone had failed to notice these two earlier events, it was highly unlikely that anyone would notice the black slime that entered the boxes and brought them to life, or the fact that all the dogs in a 2km radius started to howl.

-PROFILE CARD: YUMI-

The gang moved slowly to the cafeteria to the dismay of a certain Odd Della Robbia, whose stomach growled loudly. "Come on guys," the purple haired boy urged. "At this rate all the good stuff will be gone by the time we get there." To his horror, no one seemed to particularly care about this and continued their leisurely pace.

"Oh no," cried Victor suddenly, slapping a hand to his forehead. "I forgot my books in the library!" Odd stared at the tall boy strangely. When had Victor even found the time to go to the library? It was clear from the looks that Yumi and Ulrich were shooting the African, that they thought so.

"I went in the morning before meeting up with you guys, but I was in such a hurry I must have left some of my books there."

Aelita smiled at the dismayed boy. "Don't worry Victor; your books should still be there. We'll go look for it." She turned to the others. "Save us some food."

"I can't promise that," Odd said miserably, clutching his stomach.

Laughing, the duo separated and went back to the main building while the rest headed into the cafeteria. Deep in one of the boxes, a red light flickered on.

xXoXx

Odd set a food tray filled to the top with potato mash on the table, and took a seat with a look of grim determination. Yumi, Ulrich and Jeremy watched him with amused looks on their faces. "You going to eat all that?" Yumi asked drily. Odd said nothing, instead plunging a spoon into the mash and bringing the contents to his mouth. Shrugging, the rest of the gang went back to their own, noticeably smaller meals.

Odd had just polished up half of the food mountain when Jeremy's laptop began beeping and the cafeteria began to shake.

Victor and Aelita entered the library and headed straight for the back. "I came to return to return the book I borrowed for a bit of light reading," the African explained. "I think I must have… there it is!"

Victor scooped up his precious books and fed them into his backpack. He turned to Aelita and smiled at her. "I think we should be getting back to the others." The two were at the entrance when the first quake hit them and they staggered. Catching each other, they rushed outside and met chaos. Jim was chasing Kiwi around with a look of triumph on face, while the dog rushed madly about, like it wanted to dash its brains out.

The rest of the student body that weren't in the cafeteria were fleeing the school premises. And speaking of the cafeteria…

Aelita gasped and pointed at what was left of it. It looked like a giant fist had smashed into the building over and over again. Victor's face grew grim and he turned to Aelita. "Call them, I'll go look for help." Aelita nodded, shivering a bit. But even as she dialed Jeremy's number she couldn't help but think how perfectly X.A.N.A had struck this time.

-PROFILE CARD: AELITA-

Jeremy groaned and tried to move his body. He ached all over and winced when he managed to extract his arm from where a large rock had pinned it. Fighting a sudden, sickening thought, he looked desperately around. Yumi was unconscious, but Ulrich was cradling her body. There was a look of relief on his face that Jeremy took for a good sign. Odd had just woken up and was regarding his potato smeared front with disgust. The other students were moaning a little, but as far as he could see, no one was seriously hurt. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and looked up.

It became difficult to breathe again. A huge mass of solid rock glared down at him. Only a couple of pillars were keeping it from collapsing and crushing the puny humans beneath it. His phone rang and he automatically answered it, amazed that it had survived.

"Hello?" he said in a daze.

"Jeremy? Oh thank God. I've been trying to reach you for a while now. How are the others?"

 _Aelita_. Jeremy thought sluggishly. That's whose calling. _X.A.N.A_ … _the superscan_ … And the thought sparked the genius back to life.

"Aelita, we're okay. Its X.A.N.A. The superscan went off right before the cafeteria collapsed."

"Yeah Jeremy, I know." A sigh. "What are we going to do Jeremy? I can't go to Lyoko all by myself."

Jeremy looked around at the rubble around them. There was no getting around that one. He sighed and did the only thing he could do. "Is Victor there with you?"

xXoXx

Jeremy was expecting to spend several minutes convincing Victor of the existence of Lyoko and that he wasn't crazy and/or losing his mind. So he was thunderstruck when Victor uttered the words...

"OK. How can I help?"

"What?" Said Jeremy flabbergasted. What was _wrong_ with this boy?

"Jeremy," Victor began gently. " I come from that a country that holds technology and what it can do in very high regards. Many of the things that you take for granted, are privileges back home. So if you tell me that a piece of tech can turn someone invisible, I'll believe that it can until I find a reason not to. Better to believe and be the fool later, or refuse to believe and miss out on invisibility forever."

Jeremy was stunned into silence. "Where _are_ you from exactly?"

"Should we be having this conversation _now_?"

"Good point," Jeremy sighed and proceeded to give Victor a crash course on the supercomputer.

Fifteen minutes later, Aelita and Victor were standing in the factory. "Wow," said Victor, running a reverent hand over the supercomputer. Aelita smiled at the fanboying African and went down to the virtualization chamber. She entered the tube. "Ready Victor?"

"Ready," said the tall boy, ensconced comfortably on the chair. _Okay,_ Victor thought. _I have to get this right on the first try or my friend will vanish into the aether and my other friends crushed by a million tons of rock. So no pressure!_

Victor took a deep breath and once he managed to get his hysteria under control, launched the program.

"Transfer Aelita."

"Scanner Aelita."

"Virtualization"

Aelita appeared over the mountain sector. She caught a glimpse of the activated tower, before she landed on the waiting overboard. She raised an eyebrow. "That was fast."

Victor grinned. "I learn quickly."

"I saw the tower. Its 21 degrees west of here."

Victor followed her directions and saw the glowing tower on the computer interface. "Hey, I found it."

"Good, I'm the yellow triangle. Tell me if any other thing comes up."

"Roger that captain."

Aelita smiled and zoomed off. "We might just make a Lyoko warrior out of you yet."

-PROFILE CARD: AELITA-

Yumi opened her eyes with a slight moan. She stretched, and catching sight of a yellow tank top, realized who she was resting on. In a flash, she pushed away from Ulrich and stood up, blushing furiously. Ulrich's own face was beet red and the Japanese girl turned her face, determined to look anywhere but him. This proved to be a mistake as the realization that she was buried underground hit her. She sat hard on the ground and barely heard Ulrich answer his phone.

"Hello?"

Pause.

"Sissi?"

That caught her attention. She nearly got whiplash from the speed with which she turned to look at Ulrich. The samurai was biting his lip and mouthed the words, rescue, which made her relax a bit.

"Yeah, we're alright. No one's hurt."

A muffled reply.

"Ok. But could you guys hurry it up, I'm not sure the columns will hold out much longer."

Ulrich scooted over to her. " Its alright. Victor called Principal Delmas who called in the fire department." Thinking of the boy helped her realize...

"X.A.N.A!"

"Yeah we've already figured that part out already," said Jeremy, noticing that she was awake. "Aelita and Victor are at the factory."

Yumi calmed down for a beat. "Wait... Did you say Victor?!"

"Relax. I'm sure everything is going fine. I'll give them a call right now."

The geisha tried and failed to fight off a strong sense of doom as she waited for the line to connect.

"Hey, Victor. Any news?" Jeremy asked, putting the phone on loudspeaker.

"Yeah, I succesfully vaporized Aelita!" Victor reported cheerfully.

There was stunned silence for a moment.

" I think you mean virtualized?" Asked Jeremy cautiously.

"Hmm? Oh sorry. Yeah I meant virtualized. Silly me!"

Jeremy gave a sigh of relief and was about to say something when Victor interrupted. "Um Jeremy, three triangles, sorry... Hornets? Are chasing Aelita right now. I have to focus now. Talk to you later!"

"No, Victor..." But the African dropped the call. Jeremy slowly dropped the phone and turned to meet the horrified gaze of his friends.

"What have I done?"

xXoXx

Aelita performed a barrel roll and barely dodged the lasers that were shot at her. She was a natural on the overboard and the vehicle itself was very fast, but the hornets were just as fast, if not faster. She made a sharp turn and dived towards a valley, knowing that the hornets would follow. At the last second, she swung out of her dive and only two of the hornets managed the maneuver, the third smashing itself on the ground.

Victor cheered and studied the map. He frowned when he noticed an upcoming chokepoint ahead. He touched the mic. "Aelita, I think those hornets are leading you into an ambush," and explained what was coming up.

Aelita, contrary to all expectations, suddenly increased her speed and charged straight for it. Victor was dumbstruck by this suicidal decision and could only watch as Aelita swooped upward at the last moment, leaving her pursers smashed and devirtualized.

"You're crazy!"

The elf just laughed and continued on course for the tower. Victor relaxed and considered calling Jeremy to tell him that everything was alright, when three new hornets appeared and were joined by something that Jeremy had warned Victor about. "Aelita!" Victor called, unable to keep the alarm off his voice. "The Scyphozoa. It's here."

"What," said the pink haired girl and almost wiped out. "W...what are we going to do?"

"Relax Aelita," Victor's voice was suddenly calm. "They think you're alone, and that is something we can use to our advantage. I promised Jeremy that I'd never let anything happen to you and I don't plan to break that promise." He scanned the interface briefly. "There's a tunnel coming up on your left. I think... I... I have a plan."

Aelita nodded and made the turn only to find the scyphozoa and the hornets waiting for her. She dove under them and raced into the tunnel. Two of the hornets broke off to enter the tunnel from the left and right. The last one continued on its path. It looked like Aelita was trapped.

She didn't even slow down. She flew past the intersection, leaving the two hornets to crash into each other and had almost made it out the other side when the scyphozoa appeared. Gasping in horror, the elf reversed and met the last hornet blocking the way. The scyphozoa drew closer and slapped her overboard away, tangling her up in its tentacles. The end looked high until...

The scyphozoa flung Aelita away, red lightning flickering in its transparent brain. The hornet buzzed in confusion, and turned just in time to see the Aelita clone flicker away.

"Brilliant," Victor cried hoarsely. "I didn't know you could do it that. Your plan was better than mine."

Aelita took the left path and came out before the tower. "You had the right idea, don't beat yourself up." Victor slumped on the chair. "This is a lot more stressful than I imagined." He frowned. "I'm not sure its good for my health."

The elf simply giggled as she entered the tower.

-PROFILE CARD: JEREMY-

Buried by a few pieces of rubble, the sound systems came alive with an angry light, the air around it visibly distorted with power. The quake returned, more powerful this time and down, down below, gravel began to rain down upon our heroes.

The firefighters who had been carefully picking their way down, were flung uselessly away like ragdolls. Several meters down, Odd barely avoided being crushed by a boulder the size of a bus. Jeremy glanced up, hands clasped as if in prayer. "Victor come on."

CODE...

The pillars groaned, wide cracks appearing on it. The students screamed in horror and some fainted dead away. Ulrich looked at Yumi and bit his lip. "Yumi, in case we don't survive this, I just want to say..."

LYOKO

The quake stopped and a sudden peace descended on the school grounds.

"Victor, are you there?" Aelita asked from the tower. "Yeah I'm here," Victor said. There was a sad smile on his face. "I won't remember all this when I launch the program will I?"

"Oh Victor," Aelita said. "We have no choice..."

"I understand. You don't trust me yet. But that's Ok. I can wait."

"Oh no. Victor, that's not what I meant..."

"Return to the Past now," Victor commanded, his voice choking a bit. And white light obliterated everything.

-PROFILE CARD: AELITA-

The gang listened with thoughtful looks on their faces as Aelita told her story. When she was done, Jeremy frowned and said nothing. "You know what this means?" Odd asked.

"Obviously we don't, Odd, so what does it mean?" Yumi snapped.

"Aelita totally kicked butt today," Odd continued like Yumi hadn't spoken. "And also that Vics should be in the gang. I mean it feels like he's already part of us, right?"

Jeremy sighed. "Does he really think we don't trust him?"

Aelita nodded sadly.

"But its not just about trust," Yumi said firmly. "He has to prove he can handle the stress."

"And he's already done that," Odd said. Now he was frowning too. Aelita stood up and faced the gang. "I call for a vote. All in favor of letting Victor into the gang, raise your hand."

Odd hand was first in the air. Followed by Jeremy, Aelita, Ulrich and, with a pause, Yumi.

"Okay," said Aelita. "So who's telling him again." For some reason everyone started looking at Odd. "Why are you looking at me like that?" The purple haired boy asked. "Jeremy should do, he's already done it before!" Jeremy and Odd began to argue.

Yumi drew Ulrich aside a little from the bickering kids. She wore a serious look on her face. "What were you going to tell me?"

"Um..." Said Ulrich, wishing more than anything not to be part of this conversation. "I... I... Just planned to tell you that if I was going to die... Well... I was happy that I got to see you for the last time..." Ulrich trailed off, his face on fire.

"Oh," said Yumi. Her cheeks were a little red. "Well in that case..." She kissed Ulrich on the cheek. The samurai looked stunned.

"Thanks."

"Finally!" Victor yelled, coming to screeching halt. He gasped a little, while the others laughed at the blushing couple. "The tension between you two was starting to get to me."

"Odd, don't you have something to tell Victor?" Yumi said pointedly, with a look that said obey or get disemboweled. Odd sighed dramatically.

"Well Victor, my tall friend, I'm going to tell you a tale of pink haired elves, sinister and a supercomputer..." As Odd led away the confused boy, Yumi and Ulrich kissed for real, when they were sure no pesky friends were watching...

"I saw that!"

 _Meanwhile..._

There was a tiny warehouse beside the big one beside Kadic. This was a lot of besides for a building that looked unremarkable save for a tiny, black dot on the door. Inside, two men in black waited around a table. The phone on it flickered once.

"How was it?" Asked one of the men in the black who was apparently the leader. X.A.N.A's symbol flashed on the screen, followed by a simple message.

 _Mission Successful._

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 ** _Like and Review? Please..._**


	3. Chapter 3: Footsteps in the Dark

_Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or any of its characters. They are merely the tools that I'm using to create the products of my imagination._

Chapter Three: Footsteps in the Dark

The tube whooshed open and Victor stepped forward shakily. He slid out of the machine and sat down on the ground, head between his knees.

"How are you feeling?" Yumi asked, emerging with Ulrich; and a few beats later, Odd and Aelita. Victor groaned and waved the geisha away, taking deep breaths. The Lyoko warriors chuckled, wearing sympathetic looks on their faces. Yumi smirked. "You're the one that wanted to be a Lyoko warrior."

The African looked up, his face contorted with misery. "I didn't know it would be like this."

"Seriously Victor, it wasn't _that_ bad," Odd consoled.

"I got devirtualized by a toothpick!"

"Hey!" Ulrich protested. "That's my sword you're talking about."

"You're the one that stabbed me! Right in the You-Know-Where!"

"It was a mistake!"

"Ladies," Odd interrupted. "It's established. You're both pretty." A thought seemed to occur to him. "And on that note, what's up with your Lyoko form, V. I was expecting something… I don't know…" The purple haired boy paused, then gave a great tribal cry and mimed stabbing something violently with a spear.

The gang turned to Victor, but the tall boy didn't look offended. Instead he was watching Odd with a calculating look and a smile on his face. "Well, Odd, it would really be quite foolish of me to charge screaming directly at a monster," Victor said, amused. "And I'm the kind of guy that prefers to stealthily murder my enemies." He shrugged. "The same could be said of you. I wouldn't have pegged a dog lover like you for a cat boy."

"Hey," Odd frowned. "The cat is the perfect predator, which means that on Lyoko _I'm_ the perfect hunter."

"You tell yourself that," Victor said, affectionately ruffling Odd's hair and ascending with the elevator. Odd smiled faintly and turned to see the rest of the gang smirking. It was really disturbing to see Aelita smirking. "What?"

"Nothing," Yumi said, smiling. She and the others walked past with the air of people enjoying an inside joke. Odd stared after them. "Hey!"

-PROFILE CARD: VICTOR-

The gang was at their usual spot, waiting patiently for the school bell to signal the beginning of class. Yumi and Ulrich were sitting close together, while the three geniuses were talking animatedly with each other. Jeremy was frowning. "I'm still not satisfied with that theory Victor, the supercomputer has never done that before…"

"Done what?" Odd asked, appearing from nowhere. He was imbibing copious amounts of a purple colored soda that none of the heroes had seen before and some of it had dribbled on his front. Victor frowned at him and produced a handkerchief from his pockets. "It happened during your devirtualization ," Jeremy explained as the tall boy wiped Odd's shirt. "For a moment, the supercomputer froze."

Tiny wrinkles appeared on Yumi's forehead. "When you say froze…"

"I mean it refused to perform any of my commands. And that's worrying. If I didn't know better I'd think someone tried to hack the supercomputer."

"And that's impossible why?" Victor asked curiously.

"Whichever genius designed the supercomputer wasn't messing around. If most firewalls are like say the moon, the supercomputer's firewall is all the planets in the galaxy combined into one," Jeremy made a satisfied sound. "No one is breaking into that computer anytime soon."

Victor looked suitably impressed. Aelita touched the genius' arm. "You worry too much Jeremy," said the girl. "I'm sure it's nothing." Jeremy smiled at bit, and then allowed himself to relax. "Yeah, I'm sure your right."

xXoXx

Water dripped down from the ceiling, onto a shadowy huddled mass that lay sprawled on the ground. The mass moaned and stirred, staggering weakly to its feet. Startled eyes regarded its surroundings and it shakily touched the moss covered wall. Even in the inky darkness, there was no mistaking that pink dress. It was Aelita.

-PROFILE CARD: JEREMY-

The gang approached the cafeteria with a bit of apprehension. After all, it had been the site of two X.A.N.A attacks lately. They entered and took their seats, glancing around warily. After determining that the building wasn't about to attack them and/or explode, they relaxed and started to do justice to their meals. Aelita however, wasn't eating. She frowned at the salad that she had chosen and pushed it slightly away.

"What's wrong?" Jeremy asked. He had been watching the pink haired girl with the corner of his eyes. Then again he _always_ watched Aelita like that, and it was simply _because_ Aelita was new to the real world and might make a mistake. It wasn't as if he was secretly in love with Aelita or something. No, that would have been ridiculous.

"It's nothing," Aelita answered, unaware of the turmoil that was going on inside the genius' head. "I just have a bad feeling that's all."

Jeremy frowned, but he said nothing and the rest of the heroes finished their meals in peace. After that, Yumi waved them goodbye and went home. Ulrich and Odd went up to their rooms and Victor and Jeremy hung back to talk to Aelita.

"What's the matter?" asked the bespectacled boy, his face scrunched up in concern.

"It's just… could we run the superscan, just to be safe?" Aelita pleaded. The boys looked surprised, but quickly agreed and headed straight to the dorms with Aelita.

The elf stood back as Jeremy and Victor went to their computers and simultaneously ran the program. "See," the African began gently, "There's nothing to be…" He was interrupted by a loud beep and the image of an activated tower appeared on their screens. The duo frowned at their computers. "It says that the tower has been activated for some time," Jeremy looked bewildered. "But that's impossible; the superscan should have warned me. I synced it to my phone."

And as the two boys exchanged startled looks and worked at their computers, neither noticed Aelita's eyes change, or the blast of electricity that came crackling their way.

-PROFILE CARD: AELITA-

Water splashed noisily as the real Aelita tried to feel her way through the dark room. Her thoughts were a mess as she tried to figure out where she was and how she had gotten there. All she could remember was Jeremy calling for her materialization and the tower around her flickering. The elf shook her head and tried to focus. She had to get out of here first. Then she could worry about what happened in Lyoko.

Something startled her and she fell backwards into the water. Then she heard it again. Someone calling for her and asking her to follow. It was the voice in her dreams.

xXoXx

Odd and Ulrich had just settled to their homework after feeding Kiwi, when Aelita burst into their room. "Woah," said Odd, snatching up a blanket to cover himself, even though he wasn't naked. "You do not charge blindly into a guy's room. Especially if you're a girl." But Aelita paid the boy no attention.

"It's X.A.N.A," she gasped. "He took Jeremy and Victor!"

That got the two boys into action. "Have you checked their room?" Ulrich asked, jumping into a pair of pants. "Yes," replied the Aelita clone and she burst into tears. "Hey, take it easily," Odd said hugging her. "We'll help you look for them."

"There's no time," she countered, slipping away from Odd's arms. "We need to get to the factory and deactivate the tower."

The boys exchanged mystified looks. "All right then," Ulrich said finally. "You lead the way, I'll call Yumi."

And as the trio rushed out, a tiny smile appeared on the spectre's face.

xXoXx

Victor slammed into the door again, but it stayed shut and refused to open. He rubbed hard at his shoulder and glared at the door. "Why would Aelita attack us and lock us in?" The tall boy asked, hurt and anger in his voice.

"That's because it wasn't Aelita. It's a spectre. It's another one of X.A.N.A's creations. It looks and acts like people." Jeremy scowled. "I knew that something wasn't right."

Victor was thinking. "So if the Aelita that came out with us is a fake…"

"Then the real one must still be on Lyoko," Jeremy finished, then shook his head. "Or maybe she later came out after we were gone and X.A.N.A kept her somewhere else… either way, it doesn't matter. We're stuck here." He slid to the floor and sighed. The despondent look on Jeremy's face hurt Victor a lot more than he could say. "There must be something we can do," he insisted, a note of desperation in his voice.

As if in response, there was a grunt and the sound of something huge being moved out of the way. Then the door opened and Jim glared down at them. "Whose idea was it to keep a school cupboard in THE HALLWAY?"

The two boys blinked, and then rushed past the gym teacher. "Thanks Jim, we owe you one!" Jeremy called back. The gym teacher stared after them in shock, then shook his head and went away, muttering something about those darn kids.

-PROFILE CARD: JEREMY-

The spectre and the rest of the Lyoko warriors landed gracefully on the desert region. Their vehicles were waiting for them, and after confirming the direction, sped off in quest of the tower. "Is it far?" asked Yumi, who was piloting her overwing. "Not too far," said Fake Aelita behind her, pointing towards a faint shimmer of red. Yumi nodded and increased her speed.

Odd and Ulrich followed, uncharacteristically quiet. It was obvious that they were occupied with thoughts of the genius and his roommate. At last they spotted the tower, resting alone on a large patch of rock. The team made a preliminary sweep around the structure but saw no monsters. They landed and took their battle stances, but monsters failed to appear. "This is too easy," Ulrich said, lightly spinning his katana. "What'd you think Aelita? Aelita?"

It happened then. The surrounding land that looked so odd and plain vanished, replaced by the digital sea. Fake Aelita smirked at the looks of shock and sudden understanding that came over the team. The pink parts of her turned a nasty shade of blue and three krabes materialized beside her. "Shove them into the digital sea," commanded the spectre and launched a bolt of blue electricity at the warriors.

xXoXx

Aelita stumbled and caught herself as she followed the voice of the old man. She had been walking for God knows how long, and it suddenly occurred to her that blindly following the voice of someone… or some _thing_ that she couldn't see wasn't exactly smart. But she didn't want to stay in the dark and so she followed the distorted voice.

"Not too long now," came the voice and Aelita noticed that the thick darkness was starting to lighten. It brightened a bit more and the elf noticed the end of a tunnel. Just as the figure of the old man began to get clearer, something came flying at her. Screaming a bit, Aelita caught it on reflex. She stared down in bemusement at the CD-ROM in her hands. She looked up and wasn't all that surprised to see that the old man had vanished. She shoved the disk into her pocket and continued on, eventually emerging out of a small cave that overlooked the hermitage.

She heard quick footsteps and whirled round to see Victor and Jeremy running at her. "Aelita! Oh thank goodness," the genius cried out in relief. Victor smiled and heaved a dramatic sigh of relief. "You gave us quite a scare there, princess. The way Jeremy was acting I was expecting him to give you a kiss when he found you."

"Hey!" Jeremy protested, blushing furiously. Aelita blushed too and Victor studied her indulgently. "Don't worry Jeremy, it's really her. I had to make sure." He walked away, then glancing casually behind him said, "The two of you should really get a move on it. Like Ulrich and Yumi."

Aelita turned a befuddled gaze on Jeremy. "What…"

"It's okay. I'll explain on the way to the factory." The genius' face was grim. "Ulrich and the others are in danger."

xXoXx

The Lyoko warriors got hit several times before they could make it to their vehicles and take off. "This doesn't make sense," said Ulrich, dodging a bolt of blue lightning. 'Yeah," Odd agreed. "Since when can spectres talk in Lyoko?"

"It must be the return to the pasts," Yumi said, weaving through the storm of lasers. "Jeremy said they were making X.A.N.A stronger." Odd dived suddenly and fired off a laser arrow that miraculously took out a krabe. Fake Aelita roared in anger. "What are the odds that we'll make it out of this in one piece?" asked the acrobat, coming out of his dive.

"Destroy them my darlings!" screamed the spectre. "Destroy them utterly!"

"Not much I think," Ulrich muttered and leapt off his overbike, sword extended. "Story of my life," Odd sighed, and followed Ulrich, firing laser arrows wildly.

-PROFILE CARD: ODD-

Jeremy rushed to his chair and studied the computer interface for a moment. "They're in the desert sector. And it looks like they're in an ambush."

Victor and Aelita entered the tubes, looks of grim determination on their faces.

"Transfer Aelita,"

"Transfer Victor,"

"Scanner Aelita,"

"Scanner Victor,"

"Virtualization."

The two materialized over the desert skyline, and even though Aelita landed without a hitch, Victor wasn't so lucky. He got up scowling, and dusted his outfit. He was dressed in a jade green leather hoodie, leather pants of the same colour and boots of a lighter colour. Streaks of blue crisscrossed over his outfit, and on his left arm was an enormous wristband that morphed into a metallic, silver bow when Victor flicked his arm.

The archer studied the pulsing, blue string and drew it experimentally. A flat, sky blue energy beam formed, then shot out with an eerie twang when he released the string.

"I'm still not used to that," he said, watching the escaping energy bolt.

"Focus Victor," Jeremy demanded. "The others need your help and we have no idea how X.A.N.A is going to react to you."

"Relax Jer…" Victor began, right before the megatank rolled into position in front of them.

"Okay," said the archer. "Jeremy, what's that?"

"That's a megatank," Jeremy answered, his face grim. "This is impossible! You're not ready to fight a megatank!"

Victor said nothing; instead he glanced back at Aelita who ran to hide behind a rock.

"There's always a first time for everything,"he whispered, twisting his shoulders. On the interface, a message appeared.

VICTOR vs. MEGATANK

The monster's shell opened and it fired. The African dove to one side, dodging the elliptical laser and at the same time let loose an energy bolt at it. The megatank quickly closed its shell and the bolt dissipated harmlessly against it. "Hey," Victor protested, "No fair!"

The shell opened without warning and the laser hit Victor this time, sending him flying several meters into the air. "Careful Victor," Jeremy said, alarmed. "You just lost 40 lifepoints. If you get devirtualized, you'll leave Aelita all alone Lyoko with the scyphozoa." The hero sighed. "What should I do then?"

"Your target is the bullseye inside the shell. One hit should devirtualize it."

The archer rose to his feet and regarded his foe, then coming to a decision, he turned and ran. As hoped, the megatank gave chase and fired at the fleeing hero. Victor dived behind an inselberg, barely dodging the attack by a hair's breadth. Still open, the megatank followed, already charging up a shot that should have instantly devirtualized the new warrior. The problem was that the archer wasn't there. The megatank spun around in confusion.

"Yo," called the archer from on top of the rocky formation. "Over here."

The megatank rolled up, just in time to receive an energy bolt right in the sweet spot. It creaked once, and then exploded into tiny pixels.

Aelita stepped out from her hiding place and regarded the archer. "That was impressive." The hero gave a shrug, and then leaped from the inselberg.

"What's next?" he asked, like nothing happened.

Aelita shook her head at him. "Jeremy, where are the others?" The genius launched the locator program and gave them the coordinates to follow. The duo took off, wondering what they would find when they arrived.

-PROFILE CARD: VICTOR-

The three heroes had since lost their vehicles. Now they cowered behind a rocky barricade that Yumi kept upright with her telekinesis. Fake Aelita and her minions battered relentlessly at it, and from the tired expression on the geisha's face, Ulrich guessed she wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. The samurai scowled and turned to his teammate.

"Odd, when you get the signal, I want you to jump out and destroy those krabes. There was a sinister smile on his face. "The specters' mine."

"What…" Odd began, but Ulrich was already moving. "Triplicate," he yelled, before supersprinting away with his two clones. As expected, the specter and her minions switched their attacks towards him. "Go," the samurai screamed.

Odd leaped onto the barricade. He glanced back at Yumi who nodded and with the last of her strength, launched them both into the air. A laser arrow took out one of the krabes and then, before the huge rock hit the ground, the catboy rebounded from it and launched himself at the last monster.

Ulrich and the two clones charged at Fake Aelita, who was waiting for them, a smirk on her face. Just before one of the Ulrichs could stab her, she levitated out of the way. "What the…" began first clone Ulrich before a bolt of blue lightning ended his existence. A sweep of her arm took out the second clone and knocked the real Ulrich on his back.

Fake Aelita hovered over the fallen samurai, blue sparks dancing on her fingertips. She smiled sweetly, and then raised an arm to blast Ulrich to smithereens, when the arrival of Real Aelita distracted her.

"So you escaped," said Fake Aelita to Real Aelita.

Real Aelita said nothing, instead her eyes were closed and the most beatific expression was on her face. Fake Aelita smirked. "Come to accept your doom have you? That's wise. I would have won anyway. You…" A huge rock suddenly squashed her flat, and Fake Aelita smirked no more. Ulrich raised himself with a slight groan, and regarded the elf, who was smiling mischievously. "You were humming weren't you?"

Aelita simply shrugged, then frowned at where Odd was wrangling the remaining krabe. Ulrich sighed and readied his katana, but the pink haired girl stopped him. She tilted her head towards the banks of the digital sea where Victor coolly let loose an energy bolt at the krabe.

Odd flailed, suddenly supported by nothing and crashed to the ground. As the purple haired boy complained about inferring Africans, Aelita walked past and deactivated the tower.

-PROFILE CARD: ULRICH-

"So let me get this straight," Odd began. "You were lead out of a dark and creepy cave…"

"By the old man from your dreams, who also gave you a CD," Yumi finished.

"More like threw it at me, but that's the gist of it," Aelita confirmed.

"Hmm," said Ulrich contemplatively. "And have you played this CD?"

"Unfortunately no," Jeremy chimed in. "It's got some major locks on it. But I did manage to find out what it was about…"

"And…" Victor urged.

"It's a diary," Jeremy said dramatically. "Of a man named Franz Hopper."

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 _ **Author's note:**_ **Victor's profile card is him landing from a jump, rolling over and firing an energy bolt at the screen.**

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	4. Chapter 4: Revelation

_Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or any of its characters. They are merely the tools that I'm borrowing to craft the products of my imagination._

Chapter Four: Revelation

Yumi blocked a shot from the manta. The Lyoko warriors were outside the celestial sphere, guarding Aelita who was working at the interface. The aforementioned monster came closer and got a tessen fan in the back for its efforts. The manta screeched in pain and swooped past, exploding into pixels.

Yumi caught her fan and turned to Aelita. "I've got a bad feeling about this, are you almost done Aelita?" "Yes, almost," replied the elf, tapping at the interface. A manta dove towards Ulrich who dodged, then carved a path in the monster's back. It screamed and flew towards Odd, mad with pain, who fired three laser arrows at it. The manta was finished off by an energy bolt from Victor.

"Careful, another squadron of mantas is headed your way," Jeremy warned. Aelita gave a last swipe and looked up with a satisfied smile. "Done, the controls are all yours Jeremy." The genius entered some commands and the three vehicles appeared, joined by a forest green, crescent shaped jet. Victor was first onto his Overjet, followed by the others. They dodged the mantas attacks, headed for the gateway.

The dataflow between the celestial sphere and the rest of Lyoko dimmed, then faded away. "Alright," said Jeremy. "The passage is open." Once his team were safely out, he heaved a small sigh of relief and devirtualized them.

xXoXx

"So," Aelita began when Jeremy from the supercomputer's terminal. "Anything good?"

"I wouldn't call it good," the genius replied. "More like amazing. With this, I bet I can crack the code of Franz Hopper's diary."

"The only problem is that I'll need a supercomputer to process such a large amount of data," Aelita mused. "I'll have to activate a tower or two."

Yumi frowned. "Uh, that didn't go very well last time. X.A.N.A hates it when we play with his toys."

"I know," Jeremy replied. "But we don't have a choice."

"Right, can we go eat now," Odd said, rubbing his hands eagerly. "It's mashed potatoes today."

"You can have mine," the genius offered. "I better stay here to prep the mission. That way you can set out after lunch."

-PROFILE CARD: JEREMY-

The lunch lady dumped the greyish looking mess onto Odd's tray and made to move on. "Jeremy's not coming. He said I could have his portion too, Rosa."

Rosa studied him, then added some more with a smile. "With everything you put away I don't see how you can still be so... Scrawny."

"I am not scrawny," said the acrobat. "I'm svelte." And with that out of the way, Odd seized his food tray and marched eagerly to their table.

"So come on Ulrich, stop holding out on us. What was your overall average?" Asked Odd, taking a generous helping of potatoes and shoving it into his mouth.

"73, for the term," replied the samurai grumpily.

"Really, I got 75," Odd replied, talking another helping. "I beat you."

"Only because you made up some points in art class," Ulrich snapped. "What about you guys?" This was directed towards Victor and Aelita who had been observing the exchange with puzzled amusement.

Aelita swallowed her potatoes. "95.2"

The two boys stared at them in shock. "But it's only because of Math," Victor clarified.

"Still," Ulrich began, impressed. "You must have gotten good grades in _all_ your classes. That's great Aelita, considering..." He paused, suddenly aware of what he had almost said. "That's okay. I know I'm not really human," Aelita said. "But still, what with my dreams and everything, it all feels so familiar. Like I've lived here before. Weird huh."

The others had nothing to say to this statement and simply shrugged and went back to their meals.

xXoXx

As the team were exiting the cafeteria after lunch, Odd's phone beeped and he got a text. "Hey, looks like a girl wants to meet with me in the woods." "Really?", Aelita asked surprised. "Who?"

"The number's masked," Odd replied. "Anyway, its obvious it's just another girl who's too shy to admit she's crazy about me."

"Don't go," Victor said at once. Odd frowned. "Why?"

The African looked around at them. "Am I the only one who thinks that this is just a _little_ bit suspicious?"

"But Victor," Aelita began. "There hasn't been a X.A.N.A attack in months..."

"My point exactly. I think its a trap."

"Well, _I_ think," Odd scowled. "That you're just jealous."

"What," said Victor, stupefied.

"When was the last time a mystery girl called you?"

"What girl in their right mind would ever call _you_?"

"Goodbye," Odd said firmly, stomping off.

Victor's face darkened but he said nothing and went away. Ulrich and Aelita stared at each other. "What just happened?"

-PROFILE CARD: ODD-

Jeremy was interrupted by the superscan prompt. "Oh boy, just what I needed, an activated tower." He dialed Ulrich's number.

The samurai picked up the phone. "Yeah Jeremy. Oh okay. We're on our way." He cut the call and turned to were Aelita and Victor were sitting. "X.A.N.A's attacking, you tell Yumi, I'll tell Odd." Aelita nodded and produced her phone from her pocket.

xXoXx

Odd ran through the woods, an eager expression on his face. Despite Victor's jealous warnings, his enthusiasm wasn't the worse for it at all. He knew it was only a matter of time before a girl realized and appreciated his unique qualities.

The purple haired boy came to a halt at the crossroads. "Hello, are you there? its me, Odd," he called, looking around. His phone beeped once and Odd glanced at the text. "S.O.S X.A.N.A? No way, not _now_!" He complained. A shadow darted past suddenly and Odd turned round quickly, but there was nothing there. He looked around warily, Victor's warnings suddenly seeming much more serious. The shadow slithered silently towards him, then lunged.

xXoXx

The elevator door opened and the rest of the Lyoko warriors appeared. "Where's Odd?" Jeremy asked.

"He went to go see a mystery girl," Ulrich answered.

"What mystery girl?"

"Does it matter?" Victor snapped. "He's not here either way." Jeremy raised an eyebrow, to which the rest of the gang shook their heads at, like 'stay out of it.' "I hope he won't be much longer. Not only do you need to decode Franz Hopper's diary, you also need to deactivate the tower."

The genius turned back to the supercomputer terminal as the others descended and tried Odd's number again, but there was no answer.

"Odd's not answering, forget him for now."

"That's the best thing you've said since we got here," Victor sulked. "I'm launching the program now," Jeremy went on, ignoring the African.

"Transfer Aelita"

"Transfer Ulrich"

"Scanner Aelita"

"Scanner Ulrich"

"Virtualization"

Victor and Yumi were just entering the tubes when the door opened and Odd entered. He headed straight for the free tube, ignoring his teammates.

"Odd, thank goodness. Where were you?" Jeremy asked.

"I was busy," said Odd, his voice strangely detached.

"Well, okay then, Transfer Yumi,"

"Transfer Victor,"

"Transfer Odd,"

"Scanner Yumi"

"Scanner Victor"

"Scanner Odd"

"Virtualization!"

Suddenly an error message appeared around Odd's icon. "Odd?" Jeremy called worriedly.

"Everything's okay, I'm on Lyoko," said Fake Odd, landing gracefully on the mountain sector.

"There was a bug during the transfer," Jeremy complained. "No way." And as if to add on to Jeremy's confusion, the tower deactivated itself. Jeremy alerted the gang.

"Huh, are you sure?" Yumi asked. "The superscan shows all clear. As if X.A.N.A has called off his attack."

"Well that's one less thing for us to worry about," said Ulrich. "Right Odd?"

"Right," said Fake Odd with unconcern. The samurai stared at him strangely. What's up with him? Is he sulking or something?"

"Maybe his rendezvous didn't go well," Aelita suggested. Victor scowled and turned away from the acrobat. "Looks like there's two of them," Yumi observed.

"Here are your rides, the tower I've chosen is 72 degrees south and 55 degrees west." The heroes took off and soon caught sight of the tower. It was surrounded by rock on almost all sides. They disembarked and Aelita ran to the tower. She floated up and brought up the interface. "Okay Jeremy, I'm ready."

"Alright, I'm activating the tower... Now"

A new window popped up, cycled, then started loading. On Lyoko, the tower turned green.

"Yeah! Its working," Jeremy cheered. "The decoding of the diary is underway, but it might take sometime," Aelita said, working on her interface.

"No problem, whenever X.A.N.A leaves us in peace, everything's fine." The genius paused. "To think, we could have decoded this long before, if we had thought to use the supercomputer." He was interrupted from his musings by an alarm. Three monster icons were rapidly approaching his team.

"Heads up," Jeremy warned. "X.A.N.A's monsters headed your way."

The gang turned around to observe the trio of tarantulas charging at them. "Wow, X.A.N.A's pulled out the big guns," Ulrich commented, unsheathing his katana. Yumi produced her fans and Fake Odd took aim at the monsters.

Just as Victor was preparing to launch an energy bolt, laser arrows slammed into him, and a split second later, Yumi and devirtualized them both.

"Jeremy," said Ulrich. "X.A.N.A's taken over Odd."

Fake Odd began to fire rapidly at the samurai, who expertly blocked all of the shots. He leaped over the acrobat and took off with his Overbike.

xXoXx

Water trickled from an open tap, down into a drain where the real Odd lay unconscious. He woke up with a start and looked up at the grating above him. Then, with a grunt, Odd started to climb. But the walls were too slippery and wet, and he came crashing back down. Odd sighed.

Assuming he got out of this alive, he'd never hear the end of it from Victor. This, of course, was also assuming that the African would even talk to him again. The thought bothered Odd a lot more than he thought it would. _Well_ , he thought. _Only one way to find out_.

Gritting his teeth, Odd attempted the climb again.

-PROFILE CARD: ULRICH-

The three tarantulas went to the tower and took up positions there, leaving Ulrich to the polymorphic spectre. "Ulrich," said Jeremy suddenly. "Its a trap. The spectre is trying to lead you away from the tower on purpose."

The samurai dodged another attack by the pursuing Odd. "But why?"

"Jeremy," Aelita interrupted. "What's going on?"

"Abort the mission Aelita. Stop decoding and come back to earth. X.A.N.A's trying to take over the tower." Jeremy called Victor. "Where are you two?"

"We're in the woods. No sign of Odd yet," the African replied. "I managed to hack one of the emergency telephone lines closest to Odd's phone," the genius began.

"You can do that?" Victor asked, amazed.

"Of course I can. Anyway, if Odd still has his phone on him, then he's in the northeast corner of the woods."

"That's near the Hermitage," said Victor, beckoning Yumi to follow. "We're off."

"Jeremy, I can't stop the decoding program," Aelita said. "Its taking up too many resources. Its out of my control."

"Bad news. If X.A.N.A manages to take control of the tower now, he'll be able to gain access into the restricted part of the supercomputer. I could lose all the data in Franz Hopper's diary."

"Not to mention everything you've programmed in yourself. Our combat gear, the vehicles, the transfer codes... And my materialization program."

Jeremy looked horrified. "Ulrich! X.A.N.A's about to take control of the tower. You have to stop it."

"Right," said the samurai. "Okay. But how?"

"You have to isolate the tower. Try and cut the cables. Hurry!"

Ulrich made a hard turn and charged straight for the tower. The tarantulas attacked, unleashing a storm of lasers; but Ulrich blocked them all and back flipped off his Overbike, crushing one monster with it. He landed on the head of the second one and stabbed it to death.

The samurai jumped off and made for the cable, but was stopped by laser fire from Fake Odd. "You're wasting your time X.A.N.A, Odd has never beaten me in a fight yet."

Fake Odd considered this, then in a flash of light, turned into Negative Ulrich. Ulrich was stunned. "Yeah, well... Okay... Yeah, that... Changes things," he stuttered.

Negative Ulrich smirked, then charged forward and the two swords met, sparks flying.

xXoXx

Victor and Yumi got to the specified location, but seeing no signs of Odd, dialed his number. It started to ring, and they found it lying abandoned on the ground. Victor face looked incredibly worried. "Odd?!"

xXoXx

The tower slowly stared to turn red. Jeremy was fidgeting badly. "Aelita. Is there anything new?" He asked, biting a finger.

"There's no way to stop the program," said the elf sadly, tapping the stubborn STOP icon. "Everything's buggy."

xXoXx

The tarantula started to fire and to avoid fighting a battle on two fronts, Ulrich supersprinted away. But Negative Ulrich had the same ability and he gave chase. And so what followed was an incredibly fast and acrobatic battle that was awe inspiring to watch. The two came down from an aerial sword clash and stared each other down.

Negative Ulrich rushed forward, dodged a slash from Ulrich and snatched the sword from him. Ulrich back flipped away and stared at his suddenly empty hand. "Hey! No fair!"

xXoXx

The water had now risen to a much higher level, and it had lifted Odd to the grates. He made an attempt to lift it, failed and started calling for help. Victor and Yumi heard something, then started running towards the Hermitage.

-PROFILE CARD: AELITA-

"X.A.N.A's about take control of the tower. Ulrich. What are you doing?" Asked Jeremy waspishly.

"I just got..." replied Ulrich, dodging Negative Ulrich's slashes. "One last little thing to take care of." He leaped forward for a surprise attack, but Negative Ulrich kicked him away.

He landed hard, then bounced to his feet, making a come hither gesture with his hand. The spectre raised an eyebrow, then charged. Like lightning, Ulrich snatched back his sword and proceeded to absolutely stab the clone to death.

Ulrich sheathed his sword and supersprinted back to the tower. "I'm all done Jeremy."

"Make it fast," said the genius. "We're almost out of time."

The samurai stopped, then raised his katana in a motion to slice through the cable. He never did. He was struck several times by the last tarantula and faded away into wireframes.

"Ulrich!" Jeremy screamed, then hung his head in defeat.

xXoXx

"Odd!"

"Yumi, Victor I'm here!" Odd shouted.

The duo frowned, hearing nothing, but when they turned to leave they noticed the running water. Victor turned off the tap, then noticed Odd's arms poking out from the grate.

"Odd? Odd!"

The African ran to the grate and tried to wrench it free, but it stubbornly refused to cooperate.

xXoXx

The elevator opened and Ulrich stepped forward, exhausted. "X.A.N.A's about to steal all my data," Jeremy said despondently. "We're done for."

And suddenly, the tower turned white.

"Hey!" Aelita said, when the bugs vanished from her interface.

"What's going on?" Asked the genius, new life entering him. "I don't get it."

"It looks like X.A.N.A has lost control of the tower."

"Franz Hopper," said Jeremy in sudden realization. "Franz Hopper's helping us. What's going on your side?"

"The decoding program... Is going full speed," Aelita answered smiling. The window representing the program began to load at an astonishing rate and the supercomputer glowed with power.

xXoXx

Yumi hurried forward and between the two of them, pried open the grate. Odd was seized by the neck and dragged out to dry land, where he began to take great gulps of life saving air.

"You know, no girl has ever kept me waiting that long," Odd croaked. Victor smiled. "I'm not a girl."

Yumi frowned. "What am I, invisible?"

"I'm really sorry for what I said earlier, forgive me?" Odd asked, smiling roguishly as if Yumi hadn't spoken. Victor stared at him, then smiled at little. "Yeah, I'm sorry too."

Yumi was watching them with a smile. "You know, you two are really cute together."

Odd blushed, but he didn't take his eyes off of Victor's, who was staring right back. And even though his heart was behaving strangely, the acrobat didn't care about that at all.

xXoXx

The tower turned green and the glow faded after the decoding finished. The tarantula screamed, then walked dejectedly away. Aelita watched the data streaming through her interface. "Amazing," she said.

Jeremy called Yumi. "Yeah I've got Odd. How about you?" She asked.

"The decoding is done."

-PROFILE CARD: JEREMY-

The gang was gathered in Jeremy and Victor's room. "Franz Hopper _was_ the creator of X.A.N.A," Jeremy began. "In his diary, he wrote down everything that happened in the creation of Lyoko. Everything."

"That means you'll be able to find the antivirus," said Aelita.

"Yeah. It does. But there's something more..."

"What? Come on, spit it out," Ulrich demanded.

"Well, before Franz Hopper virtualized himself on Lyoko, and before being taken prisoner by X.A.N.A, he lived here on earth."

"We already know that," Yumi said.

"Yes, but... What we didn't know... Is that he a child... A little girl." Jeremy looked around the room, but only Victor seemed to have made the connection.

"Really?" Said Odd. "What became of her?"

"He virtualized her on Lyoko at the same time as himself."

"And?" Yumi urged. "Did she fall victim to X.A.N.A too?"

"No," said the genius. "She stayed on Lyoko."

The gang made wondering sounds, but Aelita frowned. "But that's impossible, if Hopper's daughter were on Lyoko I would have definitely known... I..."

Aelita's outburst seemed to have been the catalyst the rest of the gang needed to catch on. Aelita was thunderstruck.

"I'm... Not..."

Jeremy smiled and nodded.

"Huh..."

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 _ **Like and Review?**_

 ** _Update: It just occured to me that some of you might be waiting for my permission before sending me a PM and/or leaving a review with your suggestions for the story. And if you are, that's incredibly silly of you. I would love to see your ideas, and I would definitely use them as long as it dosen't clash with the vague path I am envisioning for this story._**

 ** _So what are you still waiting for? Send me your ideas at once!_**

 ** _P.S: It also has the side benefit of reassuring me that anyone is reading this story and is becoming invested in it._**

 ** _In the meantime, peace, from Africa._**


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